The federal government faces huge gaps of leadership in economic and financial policymaking, with about a dozen senior positions vacant or staffed by temporary caretakers, at a time of economic duress and efforts to write hundreds of new financial regulations.
The void atop much of the governmentâ??s financial machinery was underscored Monday when Nobel laureate Peter Diamond withdrew his nomination to serve on the Federal Reserve. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor blamed Republicans for blocking his nomination, saying they failed to understand the centrality of unemployment in the Fedâ??s thinking. Diamond won his Nobel in part for his work on joblessness.
